Nathuram Vinayak Godse (19 May 1910 – 15 November 1949) was a militant Hindu nationalist organizer in India, who is known for the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi. He shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point-blank range on 30 January 1948 in New Delhi. Born in Pune, Maharashtra, he had been a member of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and Hindu Mahasabha. He left RSS in the early 1940s to form a militant organization Hindu Rashtra Dal.[1][2] He resented Gandhi's accommodating attitude to India's Muslims and plotted the assassination with Narayan Apte and six others. After a trial that lasted over a year, Godse was sentenced to death on 8 November 1949 and was hanged a week later.

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Nathuram Vinayakrao Godse was born, at the nativity mission center, Pune District. His father, Vinayak Vamanrao Godse, was a post office employee and his mother was Lakshmi (née Godavari). At birth, he was named Ramachandra.[3] Nathuram was given his name because of an unfortunate incident. Before he was born, his parents had three sons and a daughter, with all three boys dying in their infancy. Fearing a curse that targeted male children, young Ramachandra was brought up as a girl for the first few years of his life, including having his nose pierced and being made to wear a nose-ring (nath in Marathi). It was then that he earned the nickname "Nathuram" (literally "Ram with a nose-ring"). After his younger brother was born, they switched to treating him as a boy.[4]

Godse attended the local school at Baramati through the fifth standard, after which he was sent to live with an aunt in Pune so that he could study at an English-language school. During his school days, he highly respected Gandhi.[5] In 1930, Nathuram's father was transferred to the town of Ratnagiri, Maharashtra.

Godse dropped out of high school and became an activist with Hindu nationalist organizations Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Hindu Mahasabha, although there have been doubts about the exact years of his membership.[6][7] The Hindu Mahasabha had at one time backed Gandhi's campaigns of civil disobedience against the British government but stayed away from the Quit India Movement in the 1940s. Both the organisations were opposed to the separatist politics of the All India Muslim League.

Godse started a Marathi newspaper for the Hindu Mahasabha called Agrani, which some years later was renamed Hindu Rashtra. Godse rejected Gandhi's philosophy, believing Gandhi repeatedly sabotaged the interests of Hindus by using the "fasting unto death" tactic on many issues. In Godse's view, Gandhi was giving in to Muslim interests in ways that seemed unfair and anti-national.[8][9]

Godse approached Gandhi on January 30, 1948 during the evening prayer at 5:17 PM. When Godse bowed, one of the girls flanking and supporting Gandhi, said to Godse, "Brother, Bapu is already late" and tried to put him off, but he pushed her aside and shot Gandhi in the chest three times at point-blank range with a Beretta M 1934 semi-automatic pistol. Gandhi was taken to Birla House, where he later died.[10]

Following the assassination of Gandhi, Godse was put on trial at Peterhoff, Shimla which housed the Punjab High Court. On November 8, 1949, he was sentenced to death. Among those calling for commutation of the death sentence for the defendants were Jawaharlal Nehru, as well as two of Gandhi's sons, who felt that executing their father's killer would dishonor his memory and legacy which included a staunch opposition to the death penalty. Godse was hanged at Ambala Jail on November 15, 1949,[11] along with Narayan Apte, a co-conspirator. Savarkar was also charged with conspiracy in the assassination of Gandhi, but was acquitted and subsequently released.

Millions of Indians mourned Gandhi's assassination; the Hindu Mahasabha was vilified and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh was temporarily banned. However, investigators could find no evidence that the RSS bureaucracy had formally sponsored or even knew of Godse's plot. The ban on the RSS was lifted in 1949. To this day it denies any connection with Godse and disputes the claim that he was a member.[7] However, Godse's brother Gopal claims that all the Godse brothers were members of the RSS at the time of the assassination.[12]

In 2014, following the Bharatiya Janata Party's rise to power, the Hindu Mahasabha has begun to make various attempts to rehabilitate Godse and portray him as a patriot. It has requested the Prime Minister Narendra Modi to install the bust of Godse. It has created a documentary film Desh Bhakt Nathuram Godse (Patriot Nathuram Godse) for release on the death anniversary of Gandhi on 30 January 2015.[13] There are also attempts to build a temple for Godse and to celebrate 30 January as a Shaurya Diwas ("Bravery Day").[14] A civil suit has been filed in Pune Court asking for a ban on the documentary film.[15]

^Chaturvedi, Vinayak (2011). "Vinayak and me - Hindutva and the politics of naming". In Boehmer, Elleke; Chaudhuri, Rosinka. The Indian Postcolonial: A Critical Reader. Routledge. p. 145. ISBN978-0415567664. Retrieved 2014-07-28. Godse abandoned the RSS after some years, claiming that it lacked proper levels of militancy, and co-founded the Hindu Rashtra Dal (Hindu National Party)...